Oliverio Girondo
Encyclopedia
Oliverio Girondo was an Argentine
poet. He was born in Buenos Aires
to a relatively wealthy family, enabling him from a young age to travel to Europe, where he studied in both Paris and England. He is perhaps most famous for his participation in the magazines (Proa, Prisma and Martín Fierro
), which ushered in the arrival of ultraism, the first of the vanguardist movements to settle in Argentina.
His first poems, full of color and irony, surpass the simple admiration of beauty in nature which was then a common theme, opting instead for a fuller and more interesting topic: a sort of celebration of living cosmopolitan and urbane, both praising such a lifestyle and criticizing some of the customs of its society.
Girondo was contemporary to Jorge Luis Borges
, Raul González Tuñón and Macedonio Fernández
and Norah Lange
(who he married in 1943) who he met at a lunch banquet in 1926 held in honor of Ricardo Güiraldes. Of these authors, all also involved in the vanguardia (avant gardism) of Argentina, most identified with the Florida group in the somewhat farcical literary hostility between that group and another called Grupo Boedo. Girondo was one of the most enthusiastic animators of the ultraist movement, exerting influence over many poets of the next generation, among them Enrique Molina with whom he translated the work of Arthur Rimbaud “Una temporada en el infierno.”
Other notable peers include Pablo Neruda
and Federico García Lorca
with whom he began lasting friendships in 1934, era when both were to be found in Buenos Aires, capital city of Argentina. Around the year 1950 he began painting in the style of surrealism, but he never published or sold any of these works.
He was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery
in Buenos Aires
.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
poet. He was born in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
to a relatively wealthy family, enabling him from a young age to travel to Europe, where he studied in both Paris and England. He is perhaps most famous for his participation in the magazines (Proa, Prisma and Martín Fierro
Martín Fierro
Martín Fierro is a 2,316 line epic poem by the Argentine writer José Hernández. The poem was originally published in two parts, El Gaucho Martín Fierro and La Vuelta de Martín Fierro . The poem is, in part, a protest against the modernist tendencies of Argentine president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento...
), which ushered in the arrival of ultraism, the first of the vanguardist movements to settle in Argentina.
His first poems, full of color and irony, surpass the simple admiration of beauty in nature which was then a common theme, opting instead for a fuller and more interesting topic: a sort of celebration of living cosmopolitan and urbane, both praising such a lifestyle and criticizing some of the customs of its society.
Girondo was contemporary to Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Raul González Tuñón and Macedonio Fernández
Macedonio Fernandez
Macedonio Fernández was an Argentine writer, humorist, and philosopher. His writings included novels, stories, poetry, journalism, and works not easily classified. He was a mentor to Jorge Luis Borges and other avant-garde Argentine writers. Seventeen years of his correspondence with Borges was...
and Norah Lange
Norah Lange
Norah Lange was an Argentine author, associated with the Buenos Aires avant garde of the 1920s and 1930s....
(who he married in 1943) who he met at a lunch banquet in 1926 held in honor of Ricardo Güiraldes. Of these authors, all also involved in the vanguardia (avant gardism) of Argentina, most identified with the Florida group in the somewhat farcical literary hostility between that group and another called Grupo Boedo. Girondo was one of the most enthusiastic animators of the ultraist movement, exerting influence over many poets of the next generation, among them Enrique Molina with whom he translated the work of Arthur Rimbaud “Una temporada en el infierno.”
Other notable peers include Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
and Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
with whom he began lasting friendships in 1934, era when both were to be found in Buenos Aires, capital city of Argentina. Around the year 1950 he began painting in the style of surrealism, but he never published or sold any of these works.
He was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.- History :...
in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
Works
- Calcomanías [Stickers] (1925)
- Espantapájaros [Scarecrow] (1932), translated in the collection Scarecrow and Other Anomalies by Gilbert Alter-Gilbert, together with "Interlunio," selected poems and prose poems (Xenos Books).
- Interlunium (1937)
- Campo nuestro [Countryside of ours] (1946)
- En la masmédula [In the masmédula] (1957)
The last of these, "In the masmédula", his final book was an earnest attempt at absolute expression. Enrique Molina comments: “The very structure of the language he uses suffers the impact of an entirely unfettered poetic energy in this truly unique book. To the point that the words themselves begin to lack separation between them, blurring which are individuals, groups, or other units of comprehension more complex still, he presents a specie of superwords with multiple connotations and multitudinous functions which proceed in a manner tailored just as much to their phonetic associations as to their semantic meaning.” Some critics relate this ultimate gesture of vanguardia (avant gardism) to the work of another, equally desperate constructor and destroyer of language and semanticity: “Trilce”, of the Peruvian author of the same era, César VallejoCésar VallejoCésar Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...
.
Trivia
Girondo's works are the backbone of The Dark Side of the Heart, a 1992 independent film directed by Eliseo SubielaEliseo SubielaEliseo Alberto Subiela is an Argentine film director and writer, whose works are considered to be in the 'magic realism' genre....
, in which a poet strives to find the love of his life, defying Death's constant interventions.
External links